TAMPA, Fla. -- A 45-year-old St. Petersburg man who has spent more than half his life in prison for armed robbery and rape will be freed after DNA evidence created "significant doubt" about his guilt, prosecutors said Friday.

The Hillsborough County State Attorney's Office said it will support a defense motion to vacate Alan Crotzer's 1982 convictions and 130-year prison sentence. His attorneys say the DNA evidence excludes him as the rapist, and a statement from a co-defendant further supports his contention that he wasn't even at the crime scene.

"After carefully weighing all available evidence, the State Attorney's Office has concluded that significant doubt exists as to Mr. Crotzer's guilt in this case," the office said in a statement Friday.

Pam Bondi, the office's spokeswoman, declined to comment further on the case until after a Jan. 23 court hearing.

Crotzer's attorneys with the Florida Innocence Initiative told him of the development in an afternoon conference call, said Sam Roberts, a Fordham University law student who has worked closely with attorneys on the case. Roberts described Crotzer as "overwhelmed, emotional and overjoyed."

"I think it will be some time before he can get his mental arms around it," Roberts said.

Crotzer and brothers Douglas James and Corlenzo James were convicted of robbing a Tampa family in 1981. Douglas James and Crotzer were also convicted of kidnapping and raping a 38-year-old woman and a 12-year-old girl at gunpoint.

A victim picked Crotzer out of a lineup. But Douglas James now says Crotzer is innocent. He said he and his brother were the rapists and a longtime childhood friend was their accomplice.

A jury found Crotzer guilty of two counts of sexual assault, armed robbery, burglary, aggravated assault and false imprisonment. The James brothers also got long prison sentences.

Crotzer could have been released from the Polk Correctional Institution on Friday, but he asked that it be delayed until after the court hearing so arrangements can be made for his shelter and support, Roberts said.

"He knows it's going to be a whirlwind," Roberts said. "He's pretty overwhelmed right now."

DNA evidence has been used to clear at least 172 people wrongly convicted of crimes in 31 states since 1989, according to the Innocence Project, a legal clinic that seeks to exonerate inmates through DNA testing.